SL Green & IES Energy Desk Collaboration

Since 2010, SL Green has invested over $50 million to enhance their portfolio’s operational efficiency. One of these initiatives included rolling out EnergyDesk in collaboration with Integrated Energy Services (IES) across 20.5 million square feet of its portfolio. Through this platform, energy data is available in 5 minute, 15 minute and hourly intervals.

The platform enables real time direct building communication with the Grid, their tenants, and with the local utility (ConEd) and provides their staff the ability to be responsive to the dynamic needs of New York City. The key functions of EnergyDesk include the ability to respond to Grid demand events and transparency regarding price signals, environmental data, equipment conditions and occupancy in real time. SL Green developed EnergyDesk to enable communication from our building to our tenants, to the NYISO and ConEd control centers, and to the EPA’s ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. This means they can talk with our BMS, tenant sub meters, utility meters, and the grid operator very simply and in a fully integrated manner saving us time and money, and greatly assisting them in scaling up the sustained maintenance of our network. The essential goal is to deliver year over year improvements to all key energy performance metrics.

To populate the platform, SL Green utilize’s utility bills and a building survey and verify Con Ed meters. To integrate Energy Desk with the BMS, they access the BACnet or Modbus client server and reset values from the EnergyDesk DRAS (Demand Response Automation Server) which is based on market events or price conditions. Real time forecast models follow the Master Services Tariff algorithms for forecast of load in a specific building. Energy efficiency and emissions offset determinations follow ISO50001 and IPMVP (International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol) Standards. NOAA weather station and connection to ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager are additional features of the platform. Also through the platform, Local Law 84 is completely automated. As mentioned above, 5 minute, 15 minute and hourly interval data is available for Local Law 87 audits.

The latest evolution of Energy Desk occurred in January 2017 when SL Green decided to automate energy consumption reports to facilitate their participation in the New York City Mayor’s Carbon Challenge. As New York City’s largest commercial landlord, it is SL Green’s responsibility to operate at the highest efficiency, implement best practices and strengthen our community’s resiliency. For this reason, they have committed eight buildings across eight million square feet to Mayor de Blasio’s Carbon Challenge, a voluntary pilot program focused on reducing energy consumption of the built environment. This program is aligned with the Mayor’s goal to reduce citywide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 80% below 2005 levels by 2050 (80×50).

To achieve emission reductions, SL Green has committed to a 30% reduction in GHG emissions from base building systems and common areas. Additionally, they will also be partnering with theirtenants who will be making an additional commitment to a specific GHG reduction within their leased spaces in their buildings.

This undertaking, SL Green developed an automated web based tool within Energy Desk to calculate and track GHG emissions on a monthly basis and create the data reports required for the Carbon Challenge program. This tool also provides property managers with a clear visualization of the amount of carbon emitted in the base year benchmarked against every subsequent year. The platform allows users to superimpose a red line over the data that represents the base year carbon and a green line that represents the target year carbon so they are able to track their performance. The Carbon Challenge platform also graphically portrays the cumulative carbon savings achieved to date (see project photos).

Not only does the Carbon Platform facilitate base building participation, but they have developed the same capabilities for their tenants. The expansion of the Energy Desk platform has given their tenants unprecedented transparency in their energy usage and GHG emissions. To effectively align our operational strategies with the Mayor’s carbon goals and successfully participate in the Carbon Challenge, collaborating and sharing data with their tenants is critical. SL Green is committed to encourage their tenants to reduce their energy consumption and make capital improvements to their spaces, as tenants are responsible for 40-60% of a building’s energy consumption.

SL Green’s Energy Desk and market-leading sustainability program has established a new precedent for landlord-tenant relationships. They are committed to maintaining industry leadership to benefit NYC, their tenants and stakeholders.

Looking to get the latest information about Wireless Infrastructure, 5G, Smart Buildings, IoT, and Small Cells or just want to see what we’ve been following throughout the week, we’ve got you covered. Subscribe Here to receive our weekly Newsletter.